Letters to the Editor - Nov. 26, 2012

Monday

Nov 26, 2012 at 3:15 AM

To the editor: Here we go again! Rochester’s liberals trying to pass something else residents said we didn’t want. Again, up comes the bathrooms for the druggies in the common! This is ridiculous. My taxes went up again so I could pay for a convenient place for prostitutes to get out of the weather and drug addicts to meet and shoot up on a rainy night! Great idea folks! This is inviting trouble. Don’t give us the “they will be locked at night” spiel, locks are to keep honest people out. They will not be “aesthetically pleasing”, they will be graffiti laden eyesores within days that will cost umpteen thousands of dollars a year to maintain! The gangs of punks that hang downtown will end up at the common because there is a place to hide and distribute their wares. How about not spending my $55,000 dollars right now, people are hurting. I’ll accept the $1 a year reduction in taxes! Anything! Rochester doesn’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.

Allan R. Trombley

Rochester

To the editor: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in 2011, adjusted for inflation, was lower than it was in 1989! Meanwhile, the incomes of the top 1% have doubled and that of the top 0.1% tripled. Yet millions of middle-class Americans voted for a candidate who promised to reduce taxes on the rich even further. The effect of a well-financed propaganda campaign is wondrous to behold!

Milt Lauenstein

Exeter

To the editor: This is an open letter to letter — Nose to nose — eyeball to eyeball from writer Mr. Pleadwell responding to your article addressed to myself and citizens of Newmarket. Mrs./Ms Joanne Lazarus, you are or have stated “there are no bonuses there never have been bonuses and there never will be bonuses. Your referring to a negotiated salary increase for teachers at the top of the pay scale. Total benefits should be published, giving amounts paid out for last four years and who authorized same. Many citizens are not aware of financial negotiating going on behind closed doors between school board members and teachers union. Appreciate your calling our attention to “No Bonuses.” Sorry for the inconvenience/ confusion/mix up/misunderstanding concerning “No bonuses.” Sincerely sorry to read that you were not satisfied with my article. In the meantime, please accept our most sincere apologies for the embarrassment and unpleasantness you and teaches experienced.

Just publish a list with amounts paid out to teachers at the top of pay scale, over last four years.

Under the Freedom of Information Act I don’t believe we are asking to much. If you and teachers have nothing to hide should be no problem.

Thank you for taking the time to write, and please excuse my delay in responding to your open letter to letter. Hope teachers enjoy their salary increase. Those at the top of the pay scale, enjoy your vacation while at South Beach, Fla. at taxpayers expense.

Norman Pleadwell

Newmarket

To the editor: The United States of America is indeed the “Land of the Free.” The U.S. affords us freedoms not known to the majority of other nations. Some of the countless freedoms include: Free speech, right to assemble, freedom of worship, right to bear arms, right to privacy, right to vote in free elections and freedom of choice. We even have a free market enterprise system for all to participate.

We are furthermore free (with specific minimum age requirements) to: cultivate a two-pack-a-day cigarette smoking habit, consume copious amounts of rot-gut whisky on a regular basis or maintain a steady diet of fast food and soda beverages. The manufacturers of these pleasures are also free to produce and satisfy the demand while obtaining handsome profits. No law-abiding American citizen or enterprise should be denied these freedoms.

However, exercising the aforementioned freedoms calls for personal and social responsibility, so the freedoms of a few don’t make slaves of the majority. The general public is currently being held hostage by a broken health care “system.”

I have demonstrated, in previous letters, that health care is national security and we are plain unhealthy despite having the best medical capability in the world. We spend 17% (approx. $2.5 trillion) of our GDP on health care with the said dismal results, which is not healthy for our economy. We discovered that lifestyle related diseases and health insurance companies may be the two leading root causes of our health care woes. It is reported that at least 70% of that $2.5 trillion spent annually can be attributed to lifestyle.

According to the CDC, an estimated 45.3 million Americans smoke cigarettes. The National Library of Medicine says that around 17.6 million adults in the United States are alcoholics or have alcohol problems. The CDC also reports that more than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese.

As we continue to discuss health care reform, we need to remind ourselves, as the bumper sticker says, “Freedom is not free.” We must respectfully demand social and personal responsibility from the suppliers and demanders for the vices they produce and consume respectively.